Data, in electronic form, can be used by a vast array of devices for an equally diverse range of applications. Devices that handle electronic data frequently include a processor that processes, manipulates, stores or transmits the electronic data according to programming for that processor.
Examples of typical processor-based devices include computers and servers. In general, a server is a computer that fulfills requests from client programs running on the same or other connected computers. In recent years, computers and servers have become more compact and more cost efficient, while also becoming more powerful.
Processor-based devices, including computers and servers, consume electrical current in their operation. This consumption generates heat inside the device. If this heat is allowed to accumulate, it may result in damage to, or the failure of, the processor-based device by compromising the device's circuitry. Many internal systems have been developed to exhaust the heat from inside these devices to the ambient environment so as to prevent any such heat damage to the internal components of the device.
The Internet, together with the development of more powerful and more economical processors, has broadened the use of, and greatly increased the demand for computers, servers and other processor-based devices. In order to meet this demand, multiple servers are often used together. In order to make efficient use of space, these servers are often placed in server racks. The server racks allow for convenient storage of multiple servers, while still allowing access to individual servers.
One difficulty associated with racks of servers or other processor-based devices is dissipation of the heat generated. Although each server usually utilizes internal cooling systems to remove the internal heat to the ambient environment, with so many racked servers operating and expelling heat in a limited space, the ability to dump internal heat into the ambient environment and so cool the internal components of the device may be compromised by elevated ambient temperatures. As more and more servers are grouped together in server racks, the need for effective removal of internal heat becomes more pronounced.
In response to this need, large cooling systems have been developed to dissipate the heat within a server room, thereby allowing the servers' internal cooling systems to function normally by maintaining a relatively low ambient temperature in the server room into which heat from inside the servers can be dumped. However, these server room cooling systems are often expensive. Moreover, with the need to group servers in a cooled room, the locations where a group of servers can be deployed become restricted by the availability of a cooled room at that location.